Republican Sen. John Thune on Wednesday introduced legislation that aims to exempt schools and universities from the Obamacare employer mandate that requires them to offer their workers health insurance or pay fines of up to $2,000-per-employee.
“Obamacare’s employer mandate is not only destroying jobs in the education system, but it also continues to drive up tuition prices for students suffering in the sluggish Obama economy,” the South Dakota politician stated. “School budgets should enhance students’ educations—not pay for the president’s health care law.”
Thune’s office goes on to report that this effort “puts teachers first.”
According to reports, some schools across the country are eliminating teaching positions and others are reducing the number of hours teachers and staff can work in order to comply with the health care law’s 30-hour work week. In addition to jobs lost, the law includes higher prices for government-approved health care plans. These higher costs for colleges and universities are inevitability passed along to students in the form of higher tuition prices. According to one witness testifying before the House Committee on Education and Workforce, his university may be forced to increase tuition by 20 percent due to the increased costs and mandates associated with ObamaCare. In K-12 education systems, these costs cannot be passed along to students in the form of higher tuition, but will be absorbed by eliminating teacher positions or cutting funding for extracurricular activities.
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